Petals in the Storm (Fallen Angels) [Paperback]

Mary Jo Putney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1993 | Series: Fallen Angels

In nineteenth-century France to stop a possible assassination, Rafael Whitbourne, Duke of Candover, encounters a beautiful spy, Countess Magda Janos, who turns out to be the woman whom he had loved--and lost--years before.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Topaz (December 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451404459
• ISBN-13: 978-0451404459
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #854,500 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USAToday bestselling author, Mary Jo Putney was born in Upstate New York with a reading addiction, a condition for which there is no known cure. Her entire romance writing career is an accidental byproduct of buying a computer for other purposes.

Her novels are known for psychological depth and intensity and include historical and contemporary romance, fantasy, and young adult fantasy. Winner of numerous writing awards, including two RITAs and two Romantic Times Career Achievement awards, she has five times had books listed among the Library Journal's top five romances of the year, and three times had books among the top ten romances of Booklist, the magazine of the American Library Association.

Her favorite reading is great stories, but in a pinch she'll settle for the backs of cereal boxes. She's delighted that e-publishing can now make available books that have been out of print.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but not quite what I'd hoped for, July 6, 2000

By 

Dr W. Richards "wmr-uk" (Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Petals in the Storm (Fallen Angels) (Paperback)

This is the second of the Fallen Angels series in order of writing, though chronologically it occurs later than a couple of its successors. This is Rafe's story, and it is a book I've been waiting to read ever since I read The Bargain (the end of The Bargain is reprised from Rafe's point of view at the beginning of this book). In The Bargain, Rafe was presented as a cynical rake with shadows in his past, and I was really looking forward to learning more about him, particularly after meeting him again in Thunder and Roses.

I was a little disappointed in this book, however. Rafe shares the limelight here with Robin, the hero of Angel Rogue, and as such we don't learn as much about him as we would like. Minor characters also occupy far more of a centre-stage role in this book than in other Putney novels, to the point of having entire scenes written from their point of view, for example.

Maggie, or Margot, is a fascinating heroine, and I enjoyed her relationship with both Robin and Rafe - and yes, she did choose the right man!

But I had wanted so much to get to know Rafe properly, and - particularly after reading Thunder and Roses, which is just *so* good - I found this book ultimately a bit unsatisfying. I will no doubt read it again, but by no means as often as I'd re-read Thunder and Roses and The Rake.

45 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars She chose the wrong man., June 23, 2001

By 

mys_reader "mys_reader" (Fort Worth, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Petals in the Storm (Fallen Angels) (Paperback)

Well, I must say, this is not one of MJP's better books. The hero is a jerk throughout the majority of the book, and when he finally discovers how wrong and stupid he had been, it is a little too late for me. Thirteen years too late.

As a 21-year-old boy, Rafe falls in love with the beautiful Margot. Eyes meeting across the room, two hearts beating as one, etc. Then a man of his crowd, (Oliver), someone he barely knows, someone he characterizes as an "oaf" boasts that she had sex with him. Never mind that Oliver is not a friend of Rafe's. Never mind that Rafe is supposedly sooo much in love with Margot. He just assumes that this woman he loves is a ... (After all, Oliver went to Eton! He is of the nobility! Such a man would never lie! She must be a harlot!) So Our Hero rushes off to accuse the woman he loves of being a ..., she throws his ring back in his face, and leaves.

Thirteen years later. Rafe has turned into a rake who beds every woman he can get his hands on, even if they are married. (But that is all right, he had a disappointment in love, so he can be as sluttish as he wants) Going to Paris to work for England (Although what qualifications does he have, besides jumping the bones of every wife in the foreign service is never made clear) He meets... you guessed it. Margot.

Well, he immediately has two goals: to prove her a spy and a traitor, and to get her into bed. She is, after all, a ... She has been living on her own for years in France.

One thing that disturbs me about this "tormented" hero is the fact that he is so bitter and angry about something that happened THIRTEEN years ago. His malevolence towards Margot is nauseating. Even if he had good reason to think the worst of her (he didn't), he should have gotten over it after more than a decade.

And how does he finally discover the truth? Another man reveals to him that good 'ole Oliver is a traitor. ONLY THEN does he realize that a nobleman can (gasp!) lie.

I mean, it's hysterical. Rafe lives in a society of hypocricy, casual adultery, and promiscuity, but can't get it through his head that a man who has a title could LIE. ("Now, really. Oliver is a boor and an oaf, and he beats his wife, but do you expect me to believe that he would lie about a beautiful woman having sex with him?") No, it is much more logical that your fiance is a harlot than to believe that a man would lie about his conquests.

The fact that he convicted her on nothing more than the "confession" of a man that he KNOWS is a boor and an oaf (HIS description of the "honest gentleman" who Margot supposedly cuckolded him with) is bad enough. The fact that he uses his long-ago heartbreak as an excuse to behave like a ... himself is the worst part.

I have to tell you, the scene where he discovers exactly what the consequences of his actions were (and they were awful) is the best part for me. While he was cavorting with married women, Margot was... well, read the book. Rafe did not grovel nearly enough for me to forgive him.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Mystery... Not as Romantic as Others, August 6, 2002

By 

Beth Jones Henkel (St. Louis MO) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Petals in the Storm (Fallen Angels) (Paperback)

Petals in the Storm comes as the second in the Fallen Angel Series. If you pay attention to the time line though, these books are not really in chronological order. Rafe, the Duke of Candover and the oldest of the Fallen Angels, fell in love right out of school. However, this young man that always was an aristocrat and rarely showed weakness let his pride and anger ruin his chances with the girl. When a mission takes him to Paris, much to his surprise his contact turns out to be the girl only she's now in disguise and one of the best spies for England. Margot Ashton is not the same girl that Rafe fell in love with. She has known excrutiating pain at the hands of men and only trusts one man explicitly... Robin, her protector of many years. As Rafe works through his feelings, his jealousy grows towards Robin and his fear for Margot in this dangerous masquerade begins to consume him. In the end, Rafe, Margot and Robin face their greatest enemy together and find an unlikely alliance that leads Margot and Rafe to the love they denied so many years ago. It's worth having for the bookshelf. It's more whodunit than romance. The sensuality is not really there like in Thunder and Roses. But it's still a good read and I really liked Rafe from his other roles in the Bargain and Thunder and Roses.